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A TREATISE ON THE LEADING CAUSES 

OF PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

IN THE HUMAN MIND. 

ESPECIALLY AS THEY RELATE TO THE ENJOYMENT 

OF THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL AND 

THE FACULTY OF TASTE. 



BY THE REV. CHAS. FRED. WATKINS, 

7 

VICAR OF BRIXWORTH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 




LONDON: 

WILLIAM PICKERING, 

1841. 






CHISWICK : 

PRINTED BY C« WHITTINGHAM. 



PREFACE, 



A SIMPLE and trifling incident gave 
rise to the present work. Sitting 
down one day, as far back as nine or ten 
years ago, before the fire, I was led by the 
appearance of an active flame which ema- 
nated from it with lambent strokes, to con- 
template the origin of that intense delight 
which we all seem prone to feel on beholding 
a blazing fire. My mind was forcibly im- 
pressed with the idea, that we must look to 
the quality of motion for the primary and 
physical occasion. On referring to different 
varieties and instances of motion in other 
bodies, this first impression was subsequently 
ripened into confirmed conviction. I was 
then led to consider what there is intrinsically 
in motion, or indicated by it, that it should 
prove so universal an occasion of delight to 
the human race. Continued reflection on 



IV PREFACE. 

the subject convinced me, that its being an 
indication of life is the primary and prevail- 
ing cause of that delight with which we are 
wont to contemplate motion in general. 

I had previously received an experimental 
conviction, in the course of some Geological 
investigations, that the curve line also is in 
all nature an indication of life, and hence the 
line of beauty, or of pleasurable sensation and 
emotion to the race of men. 

These two conclusions were followed by 
many others on the origin, modifications, and 
tendencies of all human emotions and sensa- ' 
tions, which I found to be referrible, in their 
ultimate origin and termination, to life and 
death, the conservation and welfare of the 
one, the evitation and horror of the other. 

Hereupon I purposed writing an Essay on 
the subject of our several emotions and sen- 
sations, with the view of placing that subject 
in a clear and satisfactory light, a deside- 
ratum long and earnestly sought for by the 
literary world, in distant and recent ages, as | 
well as in the present day ; and confessedly 
attempted in vain by many acute and patient 
investigators of physical and moral science, 






PREFACE; V 

as well as by persons of exquisite genius, 
taste, and literary acquirements. 

Among the most deservedly popular and 
celebrated of these writers, Alison and Reid 
appear to me to have hitherto accomplished 
more than all the rest towards a satisfactory 
elucidation of the subject : the latter by his 
wonderful acumen and rigid adherence to 
common sense and matter of fact; assisted 
by an amazing store of well digested human 
science and learning ; and guided, as well as 
guarded, by the admonitory light of revealed 
intelligence : the former by a quick percep- 
tion of numerous peculiarities, and a just 
discrimination of multiplied complexities, 
which necessarily presented themselves to 
his mind in the course of his extensive in- 
vestigations ; whilst a noble genius, an exqui- 
site sensibility, and an ample acquaintance 
with the finest ancient and modern writers, 
enabled him to treat his subject with remark- 
able beauty and elegance ; and to illustrate 
all its divisions with numerous and appro- 
priate examples, selected with the finest 
taste. 

But, to make use of figurative expressions, 



VI PREFACE. 

there was still wanting, and still left wanting 
by both these excellent writers, a point of 
distance, a point of sight, and a vanishing 
line, by which one might distinctly arrange, 
and properly judge of, these several objects 
when placed in position. 

Not perceiving any determinate principle 
from whence to set out, nor any decided 
mark to terminate the view, nor any definite 
course to guide their projection, they failed 
to give those several objects their proper 
magnitude and proportions, and to make 
them harmonize in the general view ; but 
placed or grouped them severally and pro- 
miscuously together, in a wild though beau- 
tiful disorder. 

It is not hereby intended that no previous 
writers have ever glanced at the primary and 
leading causes of our emotions and sensa- 
tions; but only that they have not clearly 
seen, and distinctly recognised them as such. 
They have rather stumbled upon them in 
their way by chance, without seeing the im- 
portance, the bearing, and connexion which 
they have with respect to the subjects of 
their investigations. For instance, Lord 



PREFACE. Vll 

Karnes, writing on the pleasure derived from 
a perception of the beauty of figure, speaks 
thus : "To inquire, why an object, by 
means of the particulars mentioned, (viz, 
regularity, uniformity, proportion, order, and 
simplicity), appears beautiful, would, I am 
afraid, be a vain attempt ; it seems the most 
probable opinion, that the nature of man was 
originally framed with a relish for them, in 
order to answer wise and good purposes. To 
explain these purposes, or final causes, though 
a subject of great importance, has scarce been 
attempted by any writer. One thing is evi- 
dent, that our relish for the particulars men- 
tioned adds much beauty to the objects that 
surround us : which of course tends to our 
happiness ; and the Author of our nature has 
given many signal proofs that this final cause 
is not below his care."* 

Had not the noble lord thought it " a vain 
attempt" to inquire, he might perhaps, by 



* I have to notice that the words which I have placed 
in italics above, for the sake of pointing them out more 
especially than the rest, are in the Roman characters in 
the original. 



Vlll PREFACE. 

inquiry, have found, that the subjects which 
had " scarce been attempted by any writer" 
would have yielded to his acute and diligent 
search. 

Modesty would hereupon fain induce me 
to inquire, Shall I then hope to succeed, where 
these, and so many of the mighty dead have 
tried and failed ? 

Truth replies, " I am willing to be wooed 
by every sincere and zealous follower; and 
if he is humble enough to be taught, I 
never suffer him to depart without receiving 
some token or other of my unfeigned re- 
gard." 

Science answers, " I am never tired of 
shewing my depositaries to those who come 
with proper catalogues and instructions in 
their hands; and am continually opening 
fresh chambers and recesses to those who are 
not satisfied with former exhibitions, but who 
resolutely importune to look still further and 
deeper into my endless and unfathomable 
stores." 

" We ought never," says Dr. Reid, " to 
despair of human genius, but rather to hope 
that in time it may produce a system of the 



PREFACE. IX 

powers and operations of the human mind, 
no less certain than those of optics and as- 
tronomy. 

" There is a natural order in the progress 
of the sciences, and good reasons may be 
assigned why the philosophy of body should 
be elder sister to that of mind, and of a quicker 
growth; but the last hath the principle of 
life no less than the first, and will grow up, 
though slowly, to maturity. 

" The remains of ancient philosophy upon 
this subject are venerable ruins, carrying 
the marks of genius and industry sufficient 
to inflame, but not to satisfy our curiosity. 
In later ages, Des Cartes was the first that 
pointed out the road we ought to take in 
those dark regions. Malebranche, Amaud, 
Locke, Berkeley, Buffier, Hutcheson, But- 
ler, Hume, Price, Lord Karnes, have la- 
boured to make discoveries ; nor have they 
laboured in vain. For however different and 
contrary their conclusions are, however scep- 
tical some of them, they have all given new 
light, and cleared the way to those who shall 
come after them. 

A distinct knowledge of the powers of 



4( 



X PREFACE. 

the mind would undoubtedly give great light 
to many other branches of science. Mr. 
Hume hath justly observed, that \ all the 
sciences have a relation to human nature; 
and however wide any of them may seem to 
run from it, they still return back by one 
passage or another. This is the centre and 
capitol of the sciences, which being once 
masters of, we may easily extend our con- 
quests every where.' 

" The knowledge of the human mind is 
the root from which the sciences grow, and 
draw their nourishment. Whether, there- 
fore, we consider the dignity of this subject, 
or its subserviency to science in general, and 
to the noblest branches of science in parti- 
cular, it highly deserves to be cultivated." 

Very soon after entering upon my task, I 
perceived that much preliminary and corre- 
lative matter would be necessary for the pur- 
pose of clearly elucidating my limited under- 
taking ; and that it would be as easy to 
myself, and much more satisfactory to the 
reader, to enlarge the sphere of my Treatise, 
and embrace the whole of the subjects pro- 
posed in the title of my work. 



PREFACE. XI 

The field is thus rendered extensive ; the 
divisions numerous, and each division capable 
of many sub-divisions; and these again of 
endless particularizations. But at present I 
must satisfy myself with as general and suc- 
cinct an account of the subjects proposed, as 
a due regard to perspicuity of argument and 
coherence of relation will permit. 

And in prosecuting this work, I shall pro- 
ceed, after the manner of the Grecian Geo- 
meters, and the metaphysical dialogues of 
Plato and Cicero, in a strictly synthetical 
order; advancing no principles but such as 
are obviously matter of fact, or generally 
recognised as true by the common consent of 
mankind ; or, at least, by the best autho- 
rities in the several departments of human 
science ; or else by the still more imposing 
testimony of divine revelation ; and deducing 
no inferences from these principles, but such 
as admit of a clear and reasonable demon- 
stration. The analytic mode of treating the 
subject is not without its uses in some re- 
spects ; but the more simple and rigid method 
of the Grecian Synthesis is, in my appre- 
hension, far more lucid in its progress, and 



Xll 



PREFACE. 



satisfactory in its results. Not that I wish 
to make this philosophy 

" Harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, 
. But musical as is Apollo's lute, 
And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, 
Where no crude surfeit reigns." 

Milton. 





A TREATISE 

ON PLEASURE AND DELIGHT IN THE 
HUMAN MIND. 

MY first proposition, then, is — That all 
our pleasurable emotions and delight- 
ful sensations are to be referred, for their 
primary origin, to the perception of life, 
whether in its elements, symptoms, welfare, 
or duration, singly or combined; and, vice 
versa, all our distressing emotions, and pain- 
ful sensations, are to be referred to the per- 
ception of death, whether in its elements, 
symptoms, aggravations, or duration, singly 
or combined. 

In order to demonstrate this proposition, 
it is necessary to show what are the prevail- 
ing elements, and obvious symptoms, or indi- 
cations of life ; and to point out a sufficient 
number and variety of instances in which 
each of these elements, symptoms, or indica- 



*2 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

tions, are obviously wont to produce emotions 
and sensations of pleasure and delight ; and 
vice versa, with respect to those which indi- 
cate the elements or symptoms of death. 

And first, with respect to Figure ; in all 
the numerous varieties thereof, as they come 
from the hand of God, it will invariably be 
found that, the curve line is an indication of 
organic matter, and therefore may be properly 
termed the line of life. In all animate sub- 
jects, not only the general outlines, but those 
of all the several members are more or less 
curved; whilst internally the bones, the 
muscles, the ligaments, the vessels, and all 
the vital parts are also curvilinear. It is so 
in beasts, fowls, fishes, reptiles, and zoophites; 
but more especially the case in the human 
frame. From the crown of* the head to the 
sole of the feet, man is externally and inter- 
nally composed of curvilinear substances, 
single or complex, simple or compound. 
Look at the form of his head, his face, his 
eyebrows, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth; his 
teeth, his lips, his neck, his arms, his trunk, 
his thighs, his legs, hands, feet, and nails : 
are they not all outlined with curves ? Does 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 3 

a straight line help to bound one single limb ? 
Not one : all are curved. Even his hair 
when apparently of the lankest kind, has 
something of a bend in its length, and in its 
girth is cylindric. His bones are cylindric ; 
his muscles elliptical; his nerves are cylin- 
drical ; his arteries conical ; his veins tubular ; 
the articulations of his joints, the ligaments, 
the viscera, all the noble parts, equally with 
the inferior, are more or less curved. 

The same will hold, in degree, of the struc- 
ture of all inferior animals, as their compara- 
tive anatomy abundantly teaches # . 

The like may be said of trees, which, 
though straight in their axes, are cylindrical 
in their girth, and curved in the form of their 
branches, boughs, and leaves; and so are 
vegetables, and so are the herbs, and flowers 
of the fieldf. 



* Alison has said very untruly, that, " In the animal 
kingdom, strong and powerful animals are generally 
characterized by angular forms." He has not attempted 
to instance one kind ; nor could he have shown that the 
elephant or whale, the horse or eagle, are less curvilinear 
than the hare and herring, the cat and sparrow. 

f The same excellent writer has committed a grand 



4 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

On the contrary, the straight line is equally 
indicative of inorganic and inanimate matter, 
as the outlines of crystallization, metals, 
schales, rocks, and earth sufficiently testify. 

The only exceptions are to be found in the ' 
spherical figure of the suns and planets ; but 
as these suspended orbs convey to our minds 
an idea of eternity, or eternal existence, by 
their circular form, without beginning, and 
without end ; so by their perpetual motion, 
warmth, and light, do they exhibit to our view 
the other principal characteristics of animated 
matter. 

Nor was it a mean proof of the wisdom 

and sagacity of Plato, when referring to the 

[ 

mistake again also, in saying that, " in the vegetable 
kingdom, all strong and durable plants are in general 
distinguished by (multiangular) forms," p. 330. They t 
are less pliant, it is true ; and sometimes, but not always, i 
less curved than the more delicate ; but certainly are 
not multiangular. Nor has he instanced any one kind f 
that is so. The oak, the elm, the beech, and all the \ 
larger, strong trees, are of a curvilinear form, as well as 
the willow, though of a less pliant texture, and less 
flexible appearance. Neither the larger animals nor 
trees are naturally angular; but only sometimes become 
so in consequence of the wasting away of their nutritive 
parts by disease or hard usage. 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 5 

circular figure of the visible world, he declared 
that God had thereby made it " an image of 
his own eternity." 

The fact itself, then, that God hath made 
this remarkable difference in the respective 
forms and structures of animate and inanimate 
bodies, is evident and unquestionable. 

And the dictates of reason and philosophy 
will alike teach us, that what his will and 
power has thus effected, his wisdom and 
goodness had predetermined in adaptation to 
the conserving and well being, as well as to 
the respective uses, of the works of his hands. 

For the curve line was made the boundary 
of animate bodies, and of their component 
parts, and also of the ever-rolling spheres, 
because it is best adapted to secure their 
strength and compactness, and fits them best 
for continual motion and duration, # inasmuch 
as they are thereby less subject to resistance 
and attrition in their respective movements 
and orderly courses. 



* Vide Professor Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, 
Book II. chap. 2, 3, On the Circular Orbits of the 
Planets ; and the Stability of the Solar System. 

B 



6 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

And as motion, ease, and conservation 
were, on the one hand, designed by the 
curve ; so on the other side, the several 
strata were, with equal wisdom and goodness, 
prepared to be the more easily separated 
and comminuted, for the service and use of 
the living creature, by their multi-angular 
forms and rectilineal positions. f 

And it is worthy of observation that, when 
the animated bodies of men, or brutes, or 
trees are going to decay, and preparing, as 
it were, for a dissolution of their component 
particles, they appear, through wasting dis- 
ease, or rigorous service, proportionably an- 
gular and rectilineal in their outward forms 
and figures : so that the curve line may be 
emphatically called the line of life, or of orga- 
nization ; the straight line, the line of inani- 
mation, and even of destruction. 

Since then life, and the preservation, and ' 

■\ This argument I have not seen in any author, 
although so obvious as it is. The dip of the strata has 
indeed been alleged as proof of the divine contrivance, 
for the supply of man's wants in fuel, water, and metals ;* 
but not so the multi-angular forms and rectilineal posi- | 
tion of inanimate matter. 

* Vide Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise. 



IN THE HUMAN MIND, 7 

welfare, and duration of life, are, by a divinely- 
implanted instinct of his nature, of the most 
intimate and dearest concern to man; and 
death and destruction are, by a similar law 
of his nature, the most abhorrent of all con- 
ceivable things to his mind; are we not 
rationally bound to conclude that, the lines 
and forms which are so remarkably indicative 
of those respective states and conditions, 
were severally adapted, by the great and 
wise Creator and Disposer of all things, to 
beget the corresponding emotions and sensa- 
tions of pleasure and delight in the one, of 
distaste and dislike in the other ? 

We know it as a physical fact, that, with 
respect to one sense at least, rounded bodies 
are beyond all others, the most easy of trac- 
tation and agreeable to the touch; and, on 
that account, produce emotions and sensations 
of pleasure and delight: whilst rectilinear 
and angular bodies are painful to handle, and 
disagreeable to feel. 

Since then, there is, with respect to the 
sense of touch, an undoubtedly positive adap- 
tation of figure to the respective emotions 
and sensations of pleasure and delight on the 



8 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

one hand, and of distaste and dislike on the 
other; must we not reasonably admit that, 
there is an equally positive adaptation of lines 
and figures to the eye, and, through that 
organ to the sense of sight, for the purpose 
of producing the same effects. # 

And hence, by association of ideas, inani- 
mate things made curvilinear are adapted to 
produce emotions and sensations of pleasure 
and delight, as arches, meandering rivers, 
convex sloping banks, and winding walks, 
spherical vessels, &c, as indicating one or 
more of the several qualities of strength, 
compactness, and duration; and of gentle- 



* Hogarth has endeavoured to show, and Alison 
admits his theory, that the serf^entine is the most beau- 
tiful figure in nature ; but this is not enough. If we 
thoroughly examine the subject, we shall find that differ- 
ent bodies require different kinds of curves, some simple, 
others compound ; some serpentine parallelisms ; others 
serpentine ellipses. The earth, and the heavenly spheres 
require a simple circular curve for their gravitating mo- 
tion, only rendered oblate at the poles by centrifugal 
force. The outlines of the human form, limbs, and 
muscles, &c. are serpentine ellipses, more or less oblate, 
or tapering, at different parts, for the greater facility of 
the various motions, evolutions, contractions, and expan- 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 9 

ness, softness, ease, smoothness, and pliabi- 
lity. 

Now before applying the epithet of beauti- 
ful to any object, it is proper to determine 
the meaning of the word; and while I do 
this in accordance with its general acceptation 
among the gross of mankind, my definition 
will certainly militate, in some respects, 
against the sense in which the word is used 
by some of our most celebrated metaphysical 
writers, especially the eloquent and admirable 
Burke, who has limited the epithet to things 
of small size, whatever other qualities he may 
allow them to possess ; and, owing to this 



sions, which their numerous functions demand : whilst 
some of their internal vessels are merely cylindric. And 
this is the case with other animals and trees. On the 
other hand, rivers, walks, and other inanimate bodies 
are frequently serpentine parallelisms, which exhibit con- 
tinuity, ease, and variety. For these reasons I have 
used the general term curvilinear in this essay. A 
celebrated artist, I believe Mr. Reinagle, has attempted 
to prove a composition of curves to be more beautiful 
than a mixture of curves and straight lines, and these 
than simple curves ; but he has confined his specimens 
to such as are suited to the forms of boughs, buds, and 
leaves of trees, which is only one department of nature. 



10 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

unnecessarily strict limitation, he has exhi- 
bited great confusion and inconsistency in 
opposing the beautiful to the sublime, as 
qualities of a directly opposite kind, and 
differing entirely in magnitude, which is not 
by any means an essential cause of difference, 
though it may certainly appear to exist in 
numerous instances, for reasons which I hope 
to specify hereafter. 

As for the word itself, it is well known that 
we derive it immediately from the French 
Beaute, which is formed from the adjective 
beau, belle ; and this from the Latin bellus, 
which is a contraction of benulus, the dimi- 
nution of benus, since written bonus. The 
French and Latin both agree in signifying 
fine, pretty, comely, and charming ; but with 
this difference, that the Latin word being a 
diminutive, is more frequently applied to what 
is small of its kind. And this casual mean- 
ing has perhaps occasioned some of our 
English writers to limit the signification of 
beautiful in all cases to what is small and 
delicate of its kind. And hence the error of 
Burke in contrasting the sublime and beau- 
tiful. 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 1 L 

The Hebrew word fa£ Japhe which we 
translate beautiful, has a more satisfactory 
origin and meaning, as given by Simonis 
under the Arabic r ^ j which signifies that 
which is perfect and entire, and complete 
in all its parts ; and is applied to things 
animate and inanimate, both in a physical 
and moral sense. 

If to this we add the signification of another 
word mo in that language, which answers 
to bonus in Latin, and to the to viaXov in 
Greek, and which signifies good, fair, useful, 
comely, excellent, happy, grateful, cheerful, 
and pleasant — morally and physically also — 
we shall have the full signification of the 
beautiful in its cause, aspect, effect, and 
purport. And thus the word is used at the 
beginning of the book of Genesis in reference 
to all the works of God, which appeared 
fair, cheerful, and pleasant to the eye ; were 
good and useful in their tendency and effect ; 
well adapted to their being and end. 

With respect to figure, the curve line was 
first, if I mistake not, called by Hogarth, in 
his analysis of that quality, " the line of 
Beauty," and was acknowledged by Burke 



12 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

to be such in his celebrated work " on the 
Sublime and Beautiful in Nature;" and by 
Alison also as generally such in his Essay 
on Taste ; but neither of those distinguished 
persons appear to have known the reason 
why it is indeed the line of Beauty; or, 
which is the same thing, why it serves to 
produce emotions and sensations of pleasure 
and delight in the human mind. All subse- 
quent writers on the subject likewise admit 
of its chiefly contributing to the form of 
beauty ; but neither do they assign any satis- 
factory reasons for this generally acknow- 
ledged fact.f 



f Alison endeavours to show that, " the beauty of 
curvilinear forms arises from the qualities of fineness, 
delicacy, and ease of which the*y are expressive ;" but 
allowing that he established the fact, which to a certain 
extent he has, but more especially with respect, to the 
quality of ease ; yet, could we satisfactorily stop at such 
fact? Do we not still require to know, why it is that 
the quality of ease should afford us pleasure and delight 
in the contemplation of any form or lines by which it is 
expressed. The reason is as necessary as the fact. I 
will therefore carry on the investigation for him upon 
his own grounds; and observe that ease, and volition 
(which he once, p. 334, couples with it as indicated by 
curve lines) are as circumstantials favourable to the 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 13 

It now appears seasonable to note that, 
the ordinary use of the faculty of seeing, 
with which all men are commonly endowed 
by the Great Creator of the universe, with 
his gift of the sense of sight, is quite sufficient 
for the general and simple perception of those 
properties in animated matter, which are 
adapted and indicated to it by the curve or 
flexible line ; and that the ordinary use of the 
faculty of handling, with which all men are as 
commonly endowed by the same omnipotent 
Creator, withhis further giftof the senseof feel- 
ing, is also alone sufficient for the general per- 
ception of those tangible properties in curvi- 



existence, welfare, and continuance of life ; and, as natu- 
ral attributes or qualities, volition is expressive of the 
high order, as ease is of the vigorous or healthy state of 
life ; and therefore it is that the lines or forms which 
represent them are pro tanto objects of pleasure and 
delight to the human mind. And, indeed, he himself 
has all but traced the matter to its source, when he 
asks the question, " whether from the winding of a river, 
of the ivy, or of the tendrils of the vine, the reader has 
not an impression of ease, of freedom, of something 
agreeable to the object ; and whether in the contrary 
forms he has not an impression of uneasiness, from the 
conviction of force having been applied, or some obstacle 
having occurred to constrain them to assume a direction 



14 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

linear bodies, which administer such universal 
pleasure to the sensible nerves of mankind. 

But notwithstanding these natural powers 
of simple perception are generally common 
to all men, they are nevertheless livelier and 
stronger in some, than in others, according 
to that vast variety of physical structure by 

unnatural to them ?" So near was this excellent writer 
to the fountain of research ! 

Nor is it in this respect only that he approximates so 
near ; but when he afterwards observes, " that, in general, 
all the former directions are expressed by verbs in the 
active voice ; a river winds, a vine wreathes itself about 
the elm, a flower bends, &c. ; while, on the other hand, 
all directions of the latter kind are expressed in general 
by the passive voice of verbs :" — what is this but to say 
that, in attributing action, we a' tribute animation, to 
the one kind, because of their form ; and the other are 
spoken of as inert matter, because of their contrary 
inanimate figure ? With respect to the other qualities, 
delicacy and fineness, which Alison supposes to consti- 
tute the other essentials of beauty, and to give it its 
highest degree, he seems to me to attribute too much 
to those qualities. A certain degree of fineness and 
delicacy may in most cases be essential to the beauty 
of an object; but it does not follow that such object 
is more beautiful than another, because it is more fine 
and delicate than it. We must consider the relation 
of the lines to the object, and attribute the palm of 
beauty to those which are most congruous and harmoni- 
ous. For instance, the Apollo Belvidere may be as 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 15 

which, for wise and gracious purposes, the 
several classes, families, and individuals of 
the human race are, through the creative 
and adaptive power of God, remarkably dis- 
tinguished. 

And therefore we find that some men are 
naturally, what is called, more susceptible 

beautiful as the Venus de Medici ; and the beech as 
beautiful as the acacia, notwithstanding the latter may 
be more delicate and fine. In short, this otherwise most 
judicious and discriminating author has fallen into the 
same error as Burke, in considering that beauty is to be 
estimated by the smallest scale of measurement, and 
thereupon calling things beautiful because they are 
minute and pretty. There is indeed a great misuse of 
language in most writers, when treating of the sublime 
and beautiful ; and a more definite and discriminating 
use of terms is therefore required. 

I have no objection to make with respect to Alison's 
description of the " Sublimity of Forms," contained in 
chap. 4, part 1st of the 1st vol. of his work, to which I 
beg to refer the reader for a sufficient enumeration of 
those forms which may justly be considered sublime. 
Unless indeed some of them might with stricter propriety 
be denoted by other terms, such as, awful, horrid, dread- 
ful, &c. But as that excellent writer seems to take the 
word sublime in its widest signification, as a very com- 
prehensive term, his application of it can hardly be 
objected to, till such time as a stricter nomenclature 
shall have been established, for the purpose of more 
properly defining the qualities, and explaining the rela- 
tions of things. 



10 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

than others of those simple emotions and 
sensations of pleasure and delight, which are 
occasioned by the mere impression of out- 
ward forms. 

And then again, besides that difference in 
perception, or susception, which is the result 



But he seems to me to have mistaken some of the 
subjects of the 2nd section of the same chapter, on " the 
natural and imitative beauty of forms." He asserts that 
superior delicacy obtains the preference with all men, 
in estimating the relative beauty and interest of outward 
forms ; instancing the more delicate shrubs and foliage, 
herbs and flowers, as the objects of our readiest choice 
and dearest regard. 

And certainly there is this preference of regard in 
general, and of admiration almost as general, with respect 
to the vegetable world ; but not absolutely and univer- 
sally so, as I have already noticed. For even here 
different tastes will estimate the qualities of those objects 
by different scales of delicacy, and will give the pre- 
ference to different degrees of delicacy, according, I 
imagine, to some relative difference of structure, natural 
or acquired, in their own physical condition, setting 
aside all reference to scientific knowledge and observa- 
tion of the qualities and growth of plants. 

But still there remains to be shown on what principle 
it is that the superior delicacy of form in objects of this 
nature, should acquire our preference and chief regard. 
Which principle I conceive to be this : — that such objects 
are more within the scope of our management, and the 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 17 

of the difference of organic structure in the 
beholder, there are further differences and 
modifications produced by the altered condi- 
tion of these organic powers, in the same 
person at different seasons, in consequence 
of other numerous impressions interfering 



exercise of our care, in appropriating them to ourselves, 
and making them minister to our occupation of mind 
and body, and consequently to the solace and delight of 
our lives. It is thus that we rather choose, and more 
highly admire the shrubs, and plants, and flowers of our 
lawns, and gardens, and conservatories, as being more 
portable, more compendious, and more manageable than 
larger trees ; and, in like manner, the more delicate and 
gentle of our petted animals, as more within the scope 
of our ability than those of a larger, coarser kind ; pro- 
moting their growth and watching their improvement 
under our hands with anxious, fond regard, second alone 
to that which we exercise and feel with respect to our 
own beloved offspring. 

The fact that those things which receive the greatest 
portion of our care and kindness, become in consequence, 
so much the more dear to our hearts; as, on the con- 
trary, those things we are accustomed to use the worst, 
become on that very account, more hateful to the mind, 
is established by sacred and human testimony. The 
consequences do not indeed appear so obvious and natu- 
ral as the inversion of the case; viz. that we should cherish 
them because we love them, or ill use them because we 
hate them, but they are equally certain. 



18 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

with the organs themselves, or the exercise 
of their natural faculties. 

Disease, for instance, may sharpen or blunt 
the organic structure, quicken or retard the 
exercise of the faculties, and in some cases 
totally destroy them ; whilst the loss of ano- 
ther faculty may, by leaving them to appro- 
priate and absorb what had previously gone 
to the supply of that other faculty, increase 
their susceptibility, and no less their ordinary 
power ; as where the loss of sight is com- 
pensated by a finer and more powerful sense 
of feeling. 

On the same principle of diversion, the 
exercise of another faculty will, according 
to its intensity, and during its continuance, 
subtract from their proper exercise, though 
not (unless carried to a practical habit) from 
any of their natural capability ; as when one 
is very attentive to hear some expected sounds, 
the most busy prospect is so far vacant to the 
sight, that we scarcely perceive what is pass- 
ing before our eyes. 

Hence it is that the same person is more 
susceptible at one season than at another, 
of those emotions and sensations of pleasure 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 19 

and delight, which are occasioned by the 
mere impression of outward forms. # 

And these I consider to be the chief, if 
not the only physical causes of those several 
differences and modifications, in the emotions 
and sensations of pleasure and delight in 



* There is also a principle of preponderancy, by 
which the imagination and consequent emotions and 
sensations of the human mind are regulated and con- 
trolled ; as when the passions and affections are too 
deeply interested in more pressing and important consi- 
derations, to admit of our exercising any observation 
upon outward objects of minor and less urgent impor- 
tance ; or when, if they suffer us to observe them, they 
affect the imagination with an adventitious influence. 

Alison has accordingly well observed on this point, 
" That that state of mind, every man must have felt, is 
most favourable to the emotions of taste, in which the 
imagination is most free and unembarrassed ; or in which 
the attention is so little occupied by any private or par- 
ticular object of thought, as to leave us open to all the 
impressions which the objects before us can produce. 
It is upon the vacant and the unemployed, accordingly, 
that the objects of taste make the strongest impression. 
The seasons of care, of grief, or of business, have other 
occupations, and destroy, for the time at least, our 
sensibility to the beautiful or the sublime, in the same 
proportion that they produce a state of mind unfavour- 
able to the indulgence of imagination." Book I. Sect. 
2, Chap. 1. 



20 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

outward forms, which we observe in different 
persons, or in the same person at different 
times. 

Having thus shown that the physical emo- 
tions and sensations of pleasure and delight 
in curvilinear forms and figures, originate in 
our instinctive love of life, which the curve 
line in nature indicates to our sight, and in 
the agreeable effects which rounded forms 
produce by the sense of touch ; and how 
those emotions and sensations are modified 
by the peculiar structure or disease of those 
organs of sight and feeling in different per- 
sons, and by the deficiency of, or counter- 
impression upon, the other organs of sense 
in the same individual, I must observe that 
this supposition of purely physical causes, is 
not intended in so exclusive and absolute a 
sense of the words, as that we should there- 
fore conceive a human being moved and 
influenced to pleasure and delight solely by 
the impression of outward form upon these 
two organs of sight and feeling, without any 
modification from association of ideas, the 
dictates of reason, morality, or religion; 
unless in the season of tender infancy, before 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 21 

the experimental, the rational, moral, or 
religious powers are at all developed. And 
even in that early season we can hardly 
suppose the pleasure and delight which the 
child exhibits at the sight of the mother's 
countenance, and the tractation of her rounded 
breasts, to be free from all other influences 
of appetite, warmth, and colour, which afford 
a combination of modified and modifying im- 
pressions. 

I only insist upon these physical being 
primary and constituent causes of such emo- 
tions and sensations in the occurrence of all 
material forms. 

And here I will reply to that question 
which has been often agitated, as to whether 
there is any original and essential beauty in 
forms ? No doubt there was to everv form 
an original and essential beauty, but only 
sui generis, that which was best adapted to 
effect the end and purpose for which it was 
created, and to secure its welfare and pre- 
servation: there is also a due proportion of 
the parts necessary to ensure the end and 
purpose, the welfare and preservation of the 
whole body ; of which, natural perception, 



22 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

science, and experience must judge. And 
therefore the several theories of fitness, utility, 
proportion, &c. have, in part, a good founda- 
tion with respect to beauty ; but neither of 
them sufficiently extensive of itself alone. 
And herein Alison is superior to most others, 
in that he proves the beauty of forms to arise 
from the associations connected with them, 
or the qualities of which they are expressive 
to us, although indeed Lord Karnes had anti- 
cipated him in this. And hence there is room 
for a great variety of beauty, in the different 
forms of the sexes, at different ages, and in 
different classes of both. And herein also we : \ 
rise from physical and rational, to moral and » 
religious perceptions of beauty, being influ- 
enced by the recognition of moral and religious 
qualities which the features, gestures, and 
expressions of the human form convey to our 
mind. Hence there appears as great a variety 
of beauty in the human form, from moral 
and religious considerations, as there does 
from physical and rational. And the great 
variety of particular tastes with respect to [ 
particular kinds of beauty, are therefore de- 
pendent upon the perceptions or opinions 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 23 

which are entertained of the several qualities 
expressed by the object. 

The next quality that indicates life, in 
outward objects, to the observing faculties of 
man, is that of Motion; which produces 
pleasure to our minds in a great degree pro- 
portionate to the extent of vital power it indi- 
cates, as compared with the usual endowment 
of the moving body, and as it tends to the 
continuance and welfare of life in the body 
itself, or to the preservation and benefit of 
those bodies on which it acts. For this rea- 
son it must neither be violent on the one 
hand, nor sluggish on the other. For sluggish 
motion indicates disease, or want of vitality ; 
and violent motion tends to the destruction 
both of the moving and objective bodies. 
Thus we are delighted with the ecstatic ges- 
tures of infants and young children, the 
agile motions of youth, the vigorous exhi- 
bitions of manhood, and the dignified carriage 
of maturer age, as respectively indicating a 
healthful state of body, and a tendency to 
promote the well being and duration of each 
of those descriptions of persons. 

But the proportion of pleasure which we 



24 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

naturally feel, is, cseteris paribus, most in 
favour of the infantine, and least in favour of 
the senile motions, because the former ap- 
pears the most, the latter the least pregnant 
with life. Rational, moral, and religious 
reflections may turn the scale the other way ; 
but the physical preference will prevail in 
the order I have stated. Universal expe- 
rience attests this, and the language of all 
nations affirm it. 

Nor is this source of pleasure confined to 
the motions of the human race ; but extends 
to those of the skipping lamb, as well as to 
those of the sportive child ; to the fleetness 
of the Arabian courser, as well as to the 
agility of an admirable Crichton; and, in 
degree, to all the animated tribes of the 
earth. 

And so, moreover, in all vegetable and 
inanimate bodies in which motion is pro- 
duced; neither by instinct, nor by volition, 
as in animated bodies ; but by the impression 
of extraneous agency ; the motion of each 
being pleasing to the mind in degree some 
what proportionate to the beneficial and l 
conservative tendency of such motion. 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 25 

Thus we delight in looking on the lambent 
motion of a bright flame, which gives such a 
peculiar zest to an Englishman's fire side ; 
on the coruscations of the heavenly bodies ; 
on the currents of winding rivers ; on the 
dancing and rippling of our pebbly streams ; 
{ on the gentle waving of trees ; the moderate 
i undulation of the sea; and the free course 
I of a ship propelled by a favouring breeze. 
In short we all love to see the whole of nature 
stirring, as far as her motions proceed with 
safety and prosperity to the present state of 
things. But all such violent motions as 
threaten a tendency to the destruction, or 
injury, either of those persons or things which 
originate such motions, or of those to which 
such motions are directed, are naturally dis- 
agreeable and unpleasant to the mind of 
man. 

Thus we are all naturally displeased with 
the exhibitions of intemperate passions, vio- 
lent exertions, raging storms, impetuous tor- 
rents, falling houses, consuming flames, as 
far as they threaten to produce diseases and 
injuries, mischief and ruin, and finally to 
terminate in death and destruction. 



26 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

For the same reason, absolute stillness is 
abhorrent to man, as an image of death. 
Thus stagnant waters; a total calm and 
absence of wind at sea, if not relieved by the 
action of the sun or moon on the surface of 
the water; motionless bodies of men and 
brutes; and, in degree, the sluggish and 
feeble haltings of slothful or decrepid crea- 
tures ; as indicative of the present, or of the 
impending loss of animal life, and of corrup- 
tion to inanimate bodies. 

An invincible proof that motion is naturally 
agreeable and pleasing to our minds, is to be 
seen in the universal delight which all healthy 
children express in beholding animate and 
inanimate objects in motion, especially the 
gambols of young creatures, whether of their 
own kind or of the brute creation. 

From all which circumstances it is evident, 
that there is in motion such a divinely ap- 
pointed adaptation to the visual faculties of 
man as produces these universal feelings of 
pleasure which he naturally finds in the first 
described instances, and of dislike in the 
latter cases. 

The sensations may be stronger or weaker, 






IN THE HUMAN MIND. 27 

according to the strength or application of 
the faculty in different persons ; and may be 
modified by various causes to the same per- 
son at different times ; in like manner as our 
perceptions and relish of outward figures are 
described to be ; but the principle, neverthe- 
less, is still in force. 

The next quality, pertaining to outward 
objects, that indicates life, and thereby pro- 
duces pleasure to the human mind, through 
the faculty of sight, is that of Light. 

This was the earliest production of the 
Almighty fiat at the first creation of the solar 
system, and followed that genial motion of 
the Creative Spirit by which the confused, 
unformed, and shapeless mass of inert matter 
was stirred and warmed into life and action. 

It was thus opportunely provided for mani- 
festing the beauty and perfection of the 
creatures about to be made ; and no less for 
promoting, as it does, the healthful vegeta- 
tion and colour of the herbs, and plants, and 
trees of the field, and the joyful circulation 
of the stream of life in the veins of the animal 
creation. Thus, while it serves as a robe of 
transcendent beauty for the whole external 



28 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

form of the visible world, it sweetens the 
juices, and cheers the heart of the creature 
within, proving both an element and indica- 
tion of life.* 

It is the first object of delight that rejoices 
the eye at our coming into the world, and 
the last object of regret from which we are 
forced to part on leaving the world. It is 
declared by the wisdom of the Omniscient 
to be "pleasant to the eyes;" and is so 
connected with life in the language of God 
and of men, in the sacred Scriptures and in 
profane writings, as to be almost identical, if 
not synonymous with it. 

At its presence all the animated part of 
the creation issue forth from the womb of the 
morning, and put themselves in lively motion 
and active employ : when it departs they 
retire to the shroud and sleep of night, whose 
still and gloomy chambers appear like the 
sepulchres of death prepared for the defunct. 

With what exquisite pleasure and delight 
do all men, possessed of the entire faculty 



* Vide Kidd's Bridgewater Treatise, Section II. on 
Light. 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 29 

and healthy organs of sight, behold the return 
of the beaming sun to enlighten the face of 
the earth, after it has been concealed by dark 
and murky clouds ? Or to be restored to the 
lustre of its rays, after having been long 
immured in some obscure abode ? But who 
will require any logical argument, or scientific 
demonstration to convince them of the beauty 
of the light, or of those pleasurable sensa- 
tions which we are all so prone to entertain 
on beholding its welcome presence, and no- 
ticing its cheerful effects on the visible scene 
around? Our very existence might as well 
be called into question, and made a matter 
of cavil and doubt. No one could refuse to 
admit the one and the other who was not 
either blind in sight, blind of understanding, 
or blinded by prejudice. The Eastern vo- 
tary who worships the light is more rational 
and excusable than one who would run into 
such an opposite extreme. It is, moreover, the 
joyful robe not only of nature, but is claimed 
as such by the Creator of the world: his 
dwelling is represented by the light, — nay, 
his essence, his substance, is said to be light. 
It is put for understanding also, and for 



30 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

purity of heart. So that nature, reason, and 
religion equally unite in asserting its attri- 
butes of pleasure and beauty ; as well as in 
proving it to be both significant of, and aus- 
picious to life. 

And therefore we may well consider these 
highly beneficial qualities, and these au- 
thentic descriptions of light, a sufficient 
ground for asserting that the Creator and 
Preserver of the world hath so adapted the 
light of nature to the sensitive faculty of 
sight, as to make it an object of beauty to 
the eye, and no less an occasion of pleasure 
to the mind. Nor is it only the natural light 
of the sun and stars, directly from them- 
selves, or reflectively from the planets, the 
beauty of which we admire, and in the plea- 
sure of which we delight; but all other 
natural light, whether it proceeds from the 
radiation of gems and precious stones, or 
other mineral and metalliferous substances ; 
from electrical phenomena, or animal bodies, 
is productive, in degree, of similar and 
proportionate effects, with the exception of 
not supplying such vital aid to the animal 
and vegetable creation, as the light of the 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 31 

heavenly orbs ; and all artificial lights pro- 
duced by the science and skill of man, con- 
tribute to the same sentiments, though not 
to the same benefits as that of the heavenly 
bodies. Hence the universal admiration, 
favour, and delight with which splendid gems, 
general illuminations, and brilliant objects of 
every kind have always been regarded, and 
made the instruments of public pageantries 
and festivities by every civilised, and almost 
every barbarous nation in the world. 

This glorious phenomenon of nature, thus 
pleasing and beneficial as it is when dis- 
pensed in due proportion, will, when too 
powerful in quantity or quality for the capa- 
city of the recipient body, thereby prove 
proportionally painful, disagreeable, and in- 
jurious to the organ of sight ; effects arising 
either from too near, direct, or concentrated 
a force of the fountain source of light ; or 
from the disease or imperfection of the ob- 
jective organ. Thus a fevered or weakened 
sight is offended and hurt by such a degree 
of light as would rejoice and benefit a healthy 
person ; and there are vertical and collective 
floods of light too strong and dazzling for 
any mortal eye to behold. 



32 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

On the contrary, darkness, as an image of 
death, is as naturally abhorrent to man ; 
and, if continued to any unusual extent, 
would be prejudicial both to animal and 
vegetable life. This is evinced by the dread 
and dislike which children naturally have to 
be left in the dark, as well as by the expe- 
rience and testimony of men, and the decla- 
rations and figurative language of the Holy 
Scriptures on the subject. It is no less ab- 
horrent, it would appear, to the vegetable 
world; for when deprived of the light of 
heaven, the herbs and flowers of the field 
are found to languish and decay, or to lose 
their sweetness and their former bloom, 
with the exception of a few anomalous plants 
which, on the contrary, are improved in 
their salutary and nutritive qualities by the 
artificial process of blanching their stems; 
but these are exceptions to the general rule. 

Colour, which is immediately dependent 
upon, and associated with light, is another 
visible indication either of the health, and 
excellency, and well-being, and conservation, 
or the vice versa, of the body in which it 
resides; and therefore, when betokening 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 33 

those favourable conditions, is an object of 
pleasing sensation to the beholder's mind; 
as, on the other hand, when it betokens the 
reverse of those conditions, it is as generally 
productive of the contrary sensations. 

Thus a softly blended mixture of red and 
white in the countenance of those persons 
who inhabit a temperate climate, is generally 
indicative of health and vigour ; and the ap- 
pearance of a deep crimson, or yellow, or 
pallid complexion, is as generally indicative 
of bodily weakness or distemper. Therefore 
it is that the union of the rose and lily, or a 
rich brunette, as conveying the agreeable 
intelligence of a well tempered constitution, 
and healthy state of body to the eye, is gene- 
rally regarded as an attribute of personal 
beauty in " the human face divine ;" and the 
presence of any other colour is regarded as 
pro tanto a detraction from personal beauty. 

On the contrary, a fair complexion would 
seem to the inhabitant of the torrid zone the 
effect of corporeal disease; and, on that 
account, appear disagreeable and unamiable 
in his eyes ; whilst a skin of jet black, or 
inclining to a dark copper colour, as conso- 



34 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

nant with a state of health and vigour, is 
esteemed by the inhabitants of those lower 
latitudes an object of personal beauty and 
delight. 

On this principle it will be easy to account 
for the partialities and tastes of all races of 
men, with respect to their national com- 
plexions, a subject that has excited the cu- 
riosity and surprise, and baffled the investi- 
gations of numerous writers, who have in 
vain attempted to account for them on any 
other principle. This, and this alone will 
apply to all extremes and modifications of 
colours that are considered beautiful in the 
human countenance — the symptoms of health, 
and vigour, and conservation being expressed 
in different climates, localities, and situations, 
by different degrees and admixture of colours, 
which are thereupon held in corresponding 
estimation by the several natives of those 
respective countries. 

For the same reason, the verdant tints of 
the earth, and of the trees and plants which 
adorn its surface, and the variegated dyes 
proper to the several flowers, are equally 
indicative of health and vigour : and, conse- 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 35 

quently, are looked upon as objects of beauty 
and delight : whilst the parched russet of the 
sward, and the searing of the arid leaves, 
and the blossom's faded glow, as denoting a 
state of decay, are naturally sad and pensive 
to the human mind ; and more especially so 
when produced by any extraordinary drought, 
before their natural season of decline. For 
the same reason, a rich translucent blue on 
the face of the deep waters, and the lofty 
vaulted sky, as expressive of a healthful 
state of undisturbed quiet in the smiling 
aspect of the material world, is always con- 
templated with admiration and delight by a 
mind itself at ease. Nor do the light sum- 
mer clouds of eve, shining with candied ra- 
diance, and glowing with the genial warmth 
of the setting sun occasion any other senti- 
ments than these, because the light and 
warmth of that glorious orb by which they 
are brightened and suffused, are favourable 
to the evocation and nutriment, to the com- 
fort and conservation of animal life. But a 
dull and murky tinge of the sea, and a 
darkened inky state of the sky, or an inflamed 
and sultry aspect of the heavens, are naturally 



36 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

productive of uneasy and unpleasant sensa- 
tions to the mind, as the harbingers of storm 
and tempest, of sickness and destruction to 
some of those persons or creatures with 
which our present interests are so intimately 
concerned. 

Our sentiments and sensations may indeed 
be here, as with respect to all other objects 
of sense, proportionally modified, and even 
altered by other considerations of a higher, 
and moro important, or more immediate in- 
terest. 

Moral and religious considerations may 
occasion us to perceive more beauty in the 
complexion where the rose is cankered, and 
the lily faded, than where they are both in 
undiminished bloom. And numerous other 
motives may interfere to diversify the kind, 
and regulate the quantity and proportion of 
colour that is most agreeable to the eye of 
different persons, in the various objects of 
the animate and inanimate part of the crea- 
tion. 

Warmth is another constituent element 
and indication of life, and essentially pro- 
motes the comfort and conservation of that 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 3? 

life to which it originally conduced. It is, 
consequently, productive in itself, and in the 
various associations of ideas connected with 
it, of pleasure and delight to the mind. 
Whatever the bases and causes of latent 
heat may be in the various bodies of the 
universe, we know that motion is the imme- 
diately exciting occasion of warmth in them 
all. In the animal frame the warmth of the 
body chiefly depends upon the circulating 
motion of the blood, which is the original 
principle of animal life ; and this circulation 
upon the action of the air through the lungs, 
the operative principle of active life. In the 
vegetable world, the circulation of the juices, 
promoted by the action of the sun and air, 
is the principal occasion of warmth. Besides 
which, there are several other excitatives and 
cherishers of warmth in animal and vegetable 
bodies, such as voluntary motion or exercise ; 
friction ; contact with, and impression from 
other animal, mineral, and vegetable bodies, 
which are made to engender and nourish 
numerous and various degrees of warmth. 
But it is that degree of warmth which con- 
tributes most to the health, arid vigour, and 

D 



38 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

well being of the animal frame that, in well 
constituted persons, naturally produces the 
greatest degree of pleasure to the mind; 
whether we regard the delighted infant nest- 
ling to its mother's side ; or the happy boy 
exhilarating his spirits with the genial glow 
of exercise and play ; or the youth and man- 
hood of the kingdom enjoying themselves in 
the fervid sports of the field; or the chilly 
senior supplying the loss or deficiency of vital 
heat, and thereby removing the depression of 
his animal spirits, by the aid of denser 
clothing and larger fires, and other artificial 
fomentors of heat; and some of all classes 
and ages stimulating their sluggish or feeble 
veins with the juice of the generous vine, and 
all the excitations which the amusements and 
social intercourse of life supply. Thus also 
it is that we see all nature rejoicing in the 
return of the genial warmth of spring. But 
when the influence of warmth amounts to 
such a degree as to relax the vigour, and 
tend to the destruction of animal life, it then 
becomes proportionally painful to the senses, 
and disagreeable to the mind of man. For 
instance, scorching or melting heat of the 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 31) 

sun or fire; the inflammatory action of a 
fever; the scalding of any liquid; and the 
stifling pressure of any outward fovents ap- 
plied to the body, are productive of languor, 
lassitude, or pain to the body ; of depression, 
acerbation, and anguish of spirit; and re- 
quire to be counteracted or mitigated by 
refrigerants of a natural or artificial kind, 
which, as soon as they act beneficially on the 
system, restore the equilibrium of the animal 
spirits. 

Cold, on the other hand, and in proportion 
to its intensity, as it tends to impede the vital 
motions, and to deprive the body of animal 
life, is painful to the sense of feeling, and 
disagreeable to the human mind. These 
remarks on the different effects of warmth 
and cold, as affecting the spirits of man, 
immediately through the sense of feeling — 
the readiest and most powerful medium by 
which they can at all be reached — are trite 
and obvious enough ; and only require to be 
mentioned in order to be fully and instantly 
admitted. But the same effects are pro- 
duced, although in a less degree, by means 
of the faculty of sight, in the contemplation 



40 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

of outward objects, according as they present 
to our minds the associate ideas of warmth 
or cold, on the one hand genial and refrige- 
rating, on the other injuriously intense. 

Thus the ruddy tint of the cheeks, and 
lips, and nails, is called " an animated glow," 
as denoting the vigour and warmth of life; 
and the rosy colour that pervades the summer 
evening's sky has obtained the same appella- 
tion from the kindred idea of solar warmth 
which it denotes. It is the same with the 
warmth expressed by the human eye, and by 
many animate objects, upon which the bright 
and richest dyes of nature are reflected or 
expressed. Whenever they convey an idea 
of genial and animating warmth, they excite 
sensations of pleasure in the beholder's mind. 
" A ha!" says the sacred volume, " I am 
warm, I have seen the fire." I have seen it, 
as though the sensation of warmth were 
excited by the mere sight of the wonted 
occasion, and a corresponding emotion of 
pleasure were thereby produced. 

Whilst the outward symptoms of inflam- 
matory action in the human countenance, as 
denoting what is injurious to health and life ; 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 41 

or of scorching and burning heat in the ma- 
terial world, which are destructive to out- 
ward things, are productive of anxious, or 
fearful, or painful emotions in the mind of 
the spectator. On the same principle, the 
appearance of a dull aspect and heavy eye in 
man, betokening as they do a deficiency of 
vital heat, are naturally unpleasant to behold. 
And in general, a grave and dull surface of 
material things, associated as it is with our 
notions and experience of cold, naturally 
occasions the same kind of sad and unplea- 
sant sensations in the mind, whatever modi- 
fications they may undergo, and however 
they may be superseded or controlled, by 
other considerations. 

The Atmospheric Amis sensibly, I should 
say palpably, adapted to cherish the vital 
powers; to invigorate the active habits of 
animals, plants, and vegetables; to refresh 
them when growing languid ; to revive them 
when going to decay. It may indeed be 
sometimes too hot, and at other times too 
cold, and thereby prove proportionally inju- 
rious to animal and vegetable life and vigour; 
and sometimes be rendered oppressive or 



42 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

deletereous by being tainted with corrupted 
matter. But, in its general state, it is highly 
beneficial to the inhabitants, animals, and 
plants of the several countries to which it is 
proper or circumambient, unless they happen 
to be sickly or diseased ; and in that case, it 
is but to change their place for some other 
atmosphere, which may generally be found 
to restore, or improve their health. And 
hence the air, so far as it is found to agree 
with the subject, or conduce to its existence 
and well being here, is productive of plea- 
surable sensations to the body, and of senti- 
ments of joy and delight to the mind. Nor 
is this to be wondered at ; as we know that 
this is the operative principle of animal life, 
since " God breathed into his nostrils the 
breath of life, and man became thereby a 
living soul." And the last exspiration of 
that breath is immediately followed by the 
death of the body. Thus it is called " the 
vital air;" and the act of dying is called 
" giving up the ghost," or spirit, or breath, 
which are altogether synonymous terms 
0*3?. OY 1 ) in the original language. The 
sensations of pleasure and of joy which men 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 43 

in general are wont to experience on going 
to inhale and receive the impressions of a 
genial air, are not only entertained within the 
breast, and declared by the testimony of the 
human tongue, but are manifested by the 
grateful symptoms of their salutary counte- 
nances and exhilarating looks. And the 
vegetable race are not more backward than 
the animal in shewing, by their healthy as- 
pects and lively colours, the grateful and 
agreeable sensations which they experience 
from the influence of the atmospheric air. 

Another indication of life is that of Sound, 
for where sound is there is motion to produce 
it, and motion is shewn to be an indication 
of life. Nor is it only thus impulsively and 
secondarily that sound is occasioned to indi- 
cate life; but in many instances it is so 
immediately, either as proceeding directly 
from vital action properly so called, or from 
the action of a vital agent as such. An 
instance of sound proceeding directly from 
vital action properly so called, is recognised 
in the customary breathing of a living crea- 
ture; and we judge as correctly and confi- 
dently of the vitality of the subject by the 



44 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

sound of his breathing, as we do by the 
throbbing emotion of his heart. 

Of sounds which proceed from the actions 
of a vital agent as such, that of the human 
voice, or of the brute creation is the most 
certain and convincing ; those of music the 
next ; and then those which are produced by 
the various operations of the human hand, or 
instruments composed by human skill. The 
sound of elementary motion— of water, air, 
and heat, is, in a remoter degree, but still in 
a manner indicative of life, inasmuch as those 
elementary motions by which they are pro- 
duced are means absolutely necessary to the 
preservation and health of both animal and 
vegetable life. 

This physical property of sound, acting 
upon the human frame, affects the sense of 
hearing; and according to the modulations 
and combinations of its tones, produces emo- 
tions and sensations of pleasure and delight 
on the one hand, of pain and unpleasantness 
on the other. If we intimately consider the 
matter, we shall find that perfect silence 
is naturally as abhorrent to man as perfect 
stillness, being equally with that an image 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 45 

and indication of death. For though we are 
frequently desirous of being left in what we 
are accustomed to call a perfect silence, as 
in what we term a perfect stillness — espe- 
cially when we seek a remission from too 
great noise and tumult, in order that we may 
meditate or perform any work alone and free 
from all disturbance : yet were it not for 
some slight sound, such as that which the 
flame or embers produce, or the passage of 
the wind, or the impression of our pen in 
writing, or the ticking of a watch under our 
pillow occasions, or even that produced by 
our own breathing, we should find such 
silence intolerable to our mind. As nature 
herself abhors an absolute vacuum in any 
part of her elementary composition, so does 
the sentient creature abhor a total cessation 
of the natural elementary actions. Nature 
may contract and expand, condense and 
rarefy her elementary matter ; but she never 
leaves an utter vacancy of space either in her 
solid or fluid bodies. The Creator hath so 
arranged and so adapted it to the conserva- 
tion and healthy operations of the universal 
frame. 



46 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

In like manner she may increase or dimi- 
nish her moving forces, and produce a cor- 
responding difference of effects upon the 
several bodies that are placed within the 
sphere of her various actions, and upon the 
senses of the human body among the rest. 
But she is never without some activity, nor 
consequently without some degree of effect 
upon all the organs of sense that are not 
entirely sealed against impression. So like- 
wise hath the Almighty Creator thus adapted 
it to the nature and supply of our vital 
wants. 

Of simple sounds, those which are gentle, 
clear, sweet, and moderately slow, appear to 
be naturally agreeable to all persons of 
healthy organs, as is shewn by the different 
effects of different sounds on children in par- 
ticular, and on adult persons of all ages in 
general. 

Clearness of voice is a sign of healthy 
organs, and universally agreeable : gentle- 
ness and sweetness indicate a kind disposi- 
tion on the part of the speaker, and are 
duly appreciated as such even by the most 
infantine ear ; whilst a moderately slow move- 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 47 

ment is pleasing to all who are old enough 
to perceive that it expresses a freedom from 
all inordinate passion of mind, and at the 
same time does not fatigue, or hurry and 
discompose the mind of the hearer. That 
such qualities in the sound of the human 
voice are universally acknowledged to be 
pleasing to the human ear, is plainly shewn 
by the pains which all men take to speak in 
those tones of voice when they wish to make 
a favourable impression upon the listener's 
mind. 

On the contrary, harsh, rough, drawling, 
and impetuous tones are in themselves uni- 
versally disagreeable to the human ear, as 
proceeding from corresponding tones of mind 
in the speaker, and indicating for the most 
part an ill disposition towards the hearer. 

The modulation of the voice to higher, 
lower, louder, or feebler tones, whether 
lively and joyful, or plaintive and mournful, 
as expressive of different passions and dispo- 
sitions in the speaker, affects the mind ac- 
cordingly with various impressions, which 
will always be modified and controlled by the 
state of the listener's mind and nerves at the 



48 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

time of hearing, and no less by the association 
of ideas which they are wont to excite with 
respect to past events, present affections, 
absent scenes, and different objects. All 
which, with the exception of what relates to 
the nervous state of the hearer, Alison has 
sufficiently stated, and I may say satisfactorily 
demonstrated, in his chapters on " The Sub- 
limity and Beauty of Simple Sounds," where 
almost every thing else that is worthy of 
notice on the subject will probably be found. 
I shall not stop to enquire in what particular 
manner the undulatory spherical vibrations 
of sound act upon the auditory nerve, and 
thereby convey their images to the appre- 
hension of the mind, which any good treatise 
on acoustics will sufficiently explain. But I 
will add of my own opinion that they seem 
to act simultaneously or instantaneously on 
the systolic and diastolic action of the heart, 
thereby quickening or retarding the circula- 
tion of the blood; raising or depressing, 
hardening or softening the arterial pulsations, 
and in like manner affecting the veins, ac- 
cording as those spherical vibrations of sound 
are faster or slower, stronger or weaker, and 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 49 

also according to the peculiar quality of the 
sound itself. And hence they are productive 
not only of different emotions, sensations, 
and passions in the mind ; but also of corres- 
ponding effects on the animal spirits and 
health of the body. 

Whatever sounds conduce to exhilarate 
the depressed spirits of man, to soothe his 
agitated nerves, or to moderate his inordinate 
passions, as they are so far beneficial to his 
existence and welfare, so are they productive 
of pleasure and delight to the mind. 

I shall very briefly take notice of Odours 
and Savours, as being a merely sensual and 
inferior kind of objects, though not unpro- 
ductive of a suitable relish and enjoyment on 
the one hand, as the creatures of a wise and 
benevolent God, who made them for our use, 
and to be received by us with corresponding 
thanksgiving ; and of as much disrelish and 
unpleasantness on the other. 

And this relish and disrelish which our 
nostrils and palates entertain for particular 
odours and savours of various sorts, or for 
the same odours and savours under different 
circumstances, is not without indication to 



50 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

man or beast of what is salutary, and what 
injurious, to the life and welfare of either. 
The taste and smell, as well as the other 
senses, acting as sentinels to the animal soul, 
to give it warning of what is friendly, and 
what is hostile, in outward material things. 

Some odours, as of flowers, and especially 
that of the rose and violet, the jasmine and 
the eglantine, are almost universally agree- 
able to the human sense. And certain sa- 
vours, as of common salt, and mixtures of 
certain sweets and milder acids are generally 
agreeable to the human palate. Nor are 
they less healthy than pleasant; for they 
both refresh and soothe the spirits, and are 
spoken of in sacred and profane writers as 
occasioning such salutary and agreeable 
effects. 

The inferiority to the rest of the senses of 
touching, smelling, and tasting, is evinced 
not only by the fact that the objects of those 
senses are in all cases embraced by them 
under the mere impulse of animal propensity 
in common with the brute ; but the more 
those senses are indulged, the more blunted 
and at length disabled they become in the 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 51 

force of their perceptions. Thus the de- 
bauchee, the epicure, the fastidious in scents 
have their senses almost deadened, and ren- 
dered almost powerless by over indulgence. 
And furthermore, although the perceptions 
of taste, and touch, and smell are really in 
the mind, as well as the perceptions of the 
other senses ; yet so simple and gross are 
those perceptions, that it requires all the 
force of philosophical argument to convince 
us that they do not rest and terminate in 
their respective organs of sense, but are 
finally transferred by those organs to the 
inward mind. Whereas the eye and ear are 
wont to call in art and science to their aid ; 
and by long and frequent exercise do but the 
more improve their natural perceptions of 
those objects on which they are employed. 
For instance, an attentive application to 
painting, music, &c. will improve the eye 
and ear of the student, whilst his judgment 
tries the objects of those organs by the rules 
of art and the principles of science. The 
reasoning mind is in general the guide, and 
director, and judge of those transactions 
in which the eye and ear are engaged ; and 



52 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

is more evidently affected by those impres- 
sions which it receives through the organs of 
sight and hearing, than it is by those which 
it derives through the agency of touch, and 
taste, and smell. 

This distinction between the dignity and 
exercise of the different senses, and the 
rational and moral uses which may thence be 
derived, is so clearly and admirably expressed 
by the celebrated Lord Karnes in the intro- 
duction to his "Elements of Criticism," that 
I shall herewith supply the reader with such 
of his judicious remarks as seem most perti- 
nent to this work in general, and this portion 
of it in particular. 

" That nothing external is perceived till 
first it make an impression upon the organ 
of sense, is an observation chat holds equally 
in every one of the external senses. But 
there is a difference as to our knowledge of 
that impression : in touching, tasting, and 
smelling,' we are sensible of the impression ; 
that, for example, which is made upon the 
hand by a stone, upon the palate by an 
apricot, and upon the nostrils by a rose : it 
is otherwise in seeing and hearing ; for I am 






IN THE HUMAN MIND. 53 

not sensible of the impression made upon my 
eye when I behold a tree ; nor of the im- 
pression made upon my ear when I listen to 
a song. That difference in manner of per- 
ceiving external objects, distinguisheth re- 
markably hearing and seeing from the other 
senses ; and I am ready to shew, that it dis- 
tinguisheth still more remarkably the feelings 
of the former from that of the latter ; every 
feeling, pleasant or painful, must be in the 
mind ; and yet, because in tasting, touching, 
and smelling, we are sensible of the impres- 
sion made upon the organ, we are led to 
place there also the pleasant or painful feel- 
ing caused by that impression; but with 
respect to seeing and hearing, being insen- 
sible of the organic impression, we are not 
misled to assign a wrong place to the plea- 
sant or painful feelings caused by that im- 
pression; and therefore we naturally place 
them in the mind where they are. Upon 
that account they are conceived to be more 
refined and spiritual, than what are derived 
from tasting, touching, and smelling ; for the 
latter feelings, seeming to exist externally at 
the organs of sense, are conceived to be 
merely corporeal. 

E 



54 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

" The pleasures of the eye and the ear 
being thus elevated above those of the other 
external senses, acquire so much dignity as 
to become a laudable entertainment. They 
are not, however, set on a level with the 
purely intellectual ; being no less inferior in 
dignity to the intellectual pleasures, than 
superior to the organic or corporeal. They 
indeed resemble the latter, being, like them, 
produced by external objects ; but they also 
resemble the former, being, like them, pro- 
duced without any sensible organic impres- 
sion. This mixed nature and middle place 
between organic and intellectual pleasures, 
qualify them to associate with both. Beauty 
heightens all the organic feelings, as well as 
the intellectual: harmony, though it aspires 
to inflame devotion, disdains not to improve 
the relish of a banquet. 

" The pleasures of the eye and the ear 
have other valuable properties beside those 
of dignity and elevation : being sweet and 
moderately exhilarating, they are in their 
tone equally distant from the turbulence of 
passion, and the languor of indolence ; and 
by that tone are perfectly well qualified, not 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 5o 

only to revive the spirits when sunk, &c. &c, 
but also to relax them when overstrained in 
any violent pursuit. Here is a remedy 
provided for many distresses ; and to be con- 
vinced of its salutary effects, it will be suffi- 
cient to run over the following particulars. 
# # # A n y intense exercise of intellectual 
powers becomes painful by overstraining the 
mind: cessation from such exercise gives 
not instant relief, it is necessary that the 
void be filled with some amusement, gently 
relaxing the spirits. Organic pleasure, &c. 
is ill qualified for that office ; but the finer 
pleasures of sense, which occupy, without 
exhausting the mind, are finely qualified to 
restore its usual tone after severe application 
to study or business, &c. &c. 

" Our first perceptions are of external 
objects, and our first attachments are to 
them. Organic pleasures take the lead ; but 
the mind gradually ripening, relisheth more 
and more the pleasures of the eye and ear ; 
which approach the purely mental without 
exhausting the spirits, and exceed the purely 
sensual without danger of satiety. 

" The pleasures of the eye and ear have 



56 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

accordingly a natural aptitude to withdraw 
us from the immoderate gratification of sen- 
sual appetite; and the mind, once accus- 
tomed to enjoy a variety of external objects, 
without being sensible of the organic impres- 
sion, is prepared for enjoying internal objects 
where there cannot be an organic impression. 
Thus the Author of nature, by qualifying 
the human mind for a succession of enjoy- 
ments from low to high, leads it by gentle 
steps from the most grovelling corporeal 
pleasures, for which only it is fitted in the 
beginning of life, to those refined and sublime 
pleasures that are suited to its maturity. 

" But we are not bound down to this suc- 
cession by any law of necessity. The God 
of nature offers it to us in order to advance 
our happiness; and it is sufficient that he 
hath enabled us to carry it on in a natural 
course. Nor has he made our task either 
disagreeable or difficult : on the contrary, 
the transition is sweet and easy from corpo- 
real pleasures to the more refined pleasures 
of sense ; and no less so from these to the 
more exalted pleasures of morality and reli- 
gion. We stand, therefore, engaged in honour 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 57 

as well as interest, to second the purposes of 
nature, by cultivating the pleasures of the 
eye and ear — those especially that require 
extraordinary culture, such as arise from 
poetry, painting, sculpture, music, gardening, 
and architecture. This especially is the 
duty of the opulent, who have leisure to 
improve their minds and their feelings. The 
fine arts are contrived to give pleasure to 
the eye and ear, disregarding the inferior 
ones. A taste for these arts is a plant that 
grows naturally in many soils ; but, without 
culture, scarce to perfection in any soil: it 
is susceptible of much refinement, and is, by 
proper care, greatly improved. In this 
respect a taste for the fine arts goes hand in 
hand with the moral sense, to which, indeed, 
it is nearly allied: both of them discover 
what is right and what is wrong. Fashion, 
temper, and education have an influence to 
vitiate both, or to preserve them pure and 
untainted : neither of them are arbitrary or 
local; being rooted in human nature, and 
governed by principles common to all men, 
&c. &c. Thus the fine arts, like morals, 
become a rational science ; and, like morals, 



58 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

may be cultivated to a high degree of refine- 
ment. 

" A just taste of the fine arts derived from 
rational principles, furnishes elegant subjects 
for conversation, and prepares us for acting 
in the social state with dignity and propriety. 
The science of rational criticism tends to 
improve the heart, no less than the under- 
standing. It tends, in the first place, to 
moderate the selfish affections : by sweeten- 
ing and harmonizing the temper, it is a 
strong antidote to the turbulence of passion 
and violence of pursuit : it procures to a man 
so much mental enjoyment, that, in order to 
be occupied, he is not tempted to deliver up 
his youth to hunting, gaming, drinking : nor 
his middle age to ambition, nor his old age 
to avarice. 

" In the next place, delicacy of taste tends 
no less to invigorate the social affections, 
than to moderate those that are selfish. To 
be convinced of that tendency, we need only 
reflect, that delicacy of taste necessarily 
heightens our feeling of pain and pleasure ; 
and of course our sympathy, which is the 
capital branch of every social passion. Sym- 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 59 

pathy invites a communication of joys and 
sorrows, hopes and fears : such exercise, 
soothing and satisfactory in itself, is neces- 
sarily productive of mutual good will and 
affection. 

" One other advantage of rational criti- 
cism is reserved to the last place, being of 
all the most important; which is, that it is 
a great support to morality. I insist on it 
with entire satisfaction, that no occupation 
attaches a man more to his duty than that of 
cultivating a taste in the fine arts; a just 
relish of what is beautiful, proper, elegant, 
and ornamental in writing or painting, in 
architecture or gardening, is a fine prepara- 
tion for the same just relish of these qualities 
in character and behaviour." 




PART II. 

WERE I to close my Thesis at the 
point to which I have hitherto brought 
it, I might justly claim the distinction of 
having elucidated a mystery in metaphysical 
science, which has confessedly baffled the 
inquiries of the most laborious and patient 
investigators of the laws by which our minds 
are moved and governed; has puzzled the 
surmises of the most subtle geniuses of every 
age and country ; and has left one of the most 
noble and interesting studies in an almost 
hopeless state of confusion and uncertainty, 
and consequently of imperfection. 

The accomplishment of such a desideratum 
to the world of letters might alone suffice to 
feed the vanity, or gratify the ambition, of 
the keenest aspirant after human fame and 
literary celebrity; nor is such a distinction 
to be repudiated with scorn, or lightly es- 



62 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

teemed by any of the sons of men, if it be 
referred with humility and gratitude to the 
Author and Giver of all wisdom, as the 
source and fountain from which it was re- 
ceived. 

But were I indeed to close my Thesis 
here, and thereby terminate the view of this 
most interesting subject with a reference 
only, or principally, to our first natural 
emotions and sensations of pleasure and 
delight — as resulting from physical causes, I 
should be treating the matter in a manner 
altogether unworthy of a Christian Philo- 
sopher; scarcely superior to a Mahometan 
Reverist ; and certainly beneath the practice 
of some of the heathen sages, of Cicero 
at least, if not of others. 

It is a circumstance therefore of the highest 
gratification to my mind, that I can pro- 
ceed with the utmost confidence to shew, 
that the fact of our emotions and sensations 
of pleasure and delight being principally 
referrible to vital apprehension, may be 
brought to bear with a powerful and salutary 
effect upon the revelation of our Christian 
Faith, no less clearly and distinctly, than it 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 63 

can upon our rational and scientific know- 
ledge, as well as upon our natural apprehen- 
sion of things. 

Had there been any appearance, much 
more any proof of dissonance, in this respect, 
with the line of argument which I have 
heretofore pursued, it would have been as 
destructive to my confidence, as well as to 
the gratification which I have all along felt 
in following that line. 

But the perfect agreement which subsists 
between the one and the other, not only 
helps to confirm the accuracy of my theory, 
but likewise serves to shew that it is the 
same God who wrote the book of Nature, 
that engraved the principles of reason and 
science, and composed the work of Revelation 
for the study of the human mind, and the 
benefit of the human race. 

And, following this ascending series, I 
proceed without further delay, in pursuing 
these investigations, to lead my readers on 
through the walks of reason and science, 
from Nature up to Nature's God, from 
earthly to celestial views, from objects of 
sense to those of faith ; from such as are 



C4 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

transient, corruptible, and unsatisfying, to 
those which are permanent, unchangeable, 
and full of joy. 

To proceed then, with the rational powers 
of man, which are the next higher in order 
and dignity to those which are merely phy- 
sical, but are previous and inferior to those 
of a spiritual faith. For — besides the five 
organs of sense properly so called, by which 
man is enabled to exercise the respective 
faculties of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting, 
and feeling ; and to which (as I hope I have 
shewn) the Author of Nature hath so 
adapted the external things of this visible 
world, that, in proportion as they exhibit the 
qualities and accidents of a prosperous ex- 
istence in themselves, or serve to preserve, 
support, or comfort this present life in us; 
so far do they produce in our minds the 
emotions and sensations of pleasure and 
delight — his Divine Creator hath also en- 
dowed him with the higher faculty of reason, 
by which he is rendered capable of discerning 
and estimating the peculiar properties of all 
sensible things: so that he not only derives 
emotions and sensations of pleasure and 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 65 

delight therefrom, through those instinctive 
animal impressions which he immediately 
receives from them, by the instrumentality 
of his outward senses; but he also derives, 
through this superior faculty, an intellectual 
addition to his enjoyment, from the very per- 
ception and estimation which it affords of 
their respective qualities. 

He now not only feels the impressions 
which they make; but he knows that they 
make such impressions, and perceives the 
nature of the objects, and understands the 
reason wherefore, and the mode and operation 
by which they act upon his mind. 

This enables him to seek and choose his 
objects, to lessen or increase, to counteract 
or neutralize ; in short, to regulate and 
modify their several impressions, according 
as his present or prospective interests may 
suggest. 

And this prospective regard to his future 
and permanent pleasure in life, in continuance 
with, or in preference to his present gratifi- 
cation, is the best result of his reasoning 
faculty, and its principal excellency over his 
animal propensions. 



GO PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

Hence it is that he forms those notions of 
adaptation, fitness, propriety, analogy, pro- 
portion, and harmony in sensible things, as 
contributing to the beauty of the object itself 
and the pleasure and delight of the observer's 
mind ; though all of them are still subservient 
to the prosperous existence of the former, or 
the vital welfare of the latter. 

The faculty of reason being inherent in 
him, and therefore cotemporary with his 
physical powers, might, if it could be ex- 
ercised as soon and as much as they, con- 
tribute equally in time and degree to the 
specified emotions and sensations of pleasure 
and delight, in the contemplation and esti- 
mation of material things. But as the 
original strength of the faculty is different in 
different persons, and variously proportioned 
to their physical powers, and diversely ex- 
ercised in different persons in relation to 
their respective powers, and in the same 
person differently at different times, it neces- 
sarily follows that, the specified emotions 
and sensations of pleasure and delight in 
present objects of sense will be variously 
modified, according to the knowledge, science, 



TN THE HUMAN MIND. 61 

and experience which the beholder himself 
has, by application and instruction, gained, 
for rightly estimating those objects, and to 
the degree in which he exercises these his 
rational endowments. 

Endued with these instinctive and rational 
faculties, and under the influence of the 
aforementioned motives, we see him engaged 
in all the arts and operations of human life, 
from those of the savage employed in the 
forest or mountain chase, in searching the 
rivers and maritime coasts for food, and 
retiring at night for rest to his wigwam hut ; 
or the Arab wandering with his flocks and 
herds, and sojourning the while in moveable 
tents ; to the more settled and civilized races 
of men, who dwell in fixed habitations on 
land, or traverse the wide ocean in well 
appointed ships, engaging themselves in 
agriculture and commerce, and in all the 
arts and sciences, trades and professions of 
humankind. 

Wealth and property, honour and glory, 
elevation and dignity, may be the immediate 
objects which they respectively have in view ; 
but these only as means to an end ; that they 



68 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

may make them subservient to the welfare 
and comfort, to the pleasure and enjoyment 
of human life. 

For the same reason it is that man enters 
into social converse, and unites in forming 
societies amongst his fellow creatures — that 
they may mutually contribute to the preserv- 
ation and welfare, to the pleasure and satis- 
faction of life. And in all these cases it 
therefore ensues that, in proportion as persons 
and things contribute and subserve to this 
chief and comprehensive object, whether by 
general or peculiar adaptation to the wants 
and desires, the disposition or taste, the cir- 
cumstances or humour of the man ; in that 
proportion does he admire, and delight him- 
self in them, physically, rationally, and mo- 
rally, singly or combined. 

The Almighty, wise, and benevolent Cre- 
ator hath so multiplied the varieties of his 
creatures, and the dispositions, circumstances, 
and conditions of those creatures ; and hath 
so adapted every one of their natures and 
qualities to their appropriate objects, that 
there is ample room for every one to suit his 
propensities and tastes, in the midst of so 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 69 

vast a variety as are here provided for man, 
as well on physical, as on rational and moral 
grounds. Whilst, at the same time, this 
very multiplicity and variety affords an ample 
means, as wisely and benevolently designed, 
to call forth the powers, to stimulate the 
energies, and to elicit the pursuits of the 
sons of men, in all those labours and enter- 
prizes which are given them to be exercised 
therewith. 

And had his reason remained unimpaired, 
as it was at the first, he might thereby have 
not only discerned, but also followed that 
particular mode and course of conduct which 
would certainly have ensured him the greatest 
advantages and happiness of the life that now 
is, and of that which is to come. 

But the understanding having been weak- 
ened and clouded, and the will having been 
depraved by the commission and effects of 
sin; he required a clearer, stronger, and 
more stable faculty, than that of his obscured 
and wayward reason, to direct him in the 
choice, and support him in the pursuit of his 
true and lasting interests ; and, consequently, 
of procuring him pure and permanent delight. 



70 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

This faculty was supplied him by the gift 
of Faith, which enables men, by means of 
Divine Revelation, to see the true nature and 
qualities, relations and consequences both of 
present and future things ; and, in proportion 
as it is exercised and improved, to choose 
and pursue the good, to decline and reject the 
evil ; or in other words, to choose and pursue 
those things which tend most to their pre- 
servation and well being in this life, and also 
in the world to come. 

To this special faculty it is that God 
chiefly proposes the objects and means of a 
delightful and happy life, comparatively so 
here, perfectly so hereafter ; not without some 
regard to the instincts of man's nature, and 
still less in opposition to his right reason ; but 
only to the proper regulation of the one, and 
the enlightening and guiding of the other. 

And if we take an intimate and continual 
survey of the whole story and tenor of 
revelation, we shall find that life — natural, 
spiritual, or eternal, is proposed by the 
Father and the Son as the primary gift, the 
main endowment, the leading object, the 
ultimate scope of the human race ; and that 






IN THE HUMAN MIND. 71 

whatever images and things exhibit or pro- 
mote the conservation and welfare thereof, 
are pourtrayed to the eye and the mind as 
objects of beauty, pleasure, and delight. For 
no sooner had God created man out of the 
dust of the ground, than he breathed into his 
nostrils the breath of life, and man became a 
living soul. 

And to support, and no less to crown that 
life with pleasure and delight, he had gra- 
ciously provided for him the fruits, and shrubs, 
and flowers of the Garden of Eden ; and 
immediately added the company of a kindred 
being to associate and participate with him 
in all the occupations and enjoyments of his 
life. A being, so tender and fragile as to 
engage his constant care ; so bland and 
gentle as to sweeten all his converse ; so 
adapted for love and procreation as to win 
his fond regard and fixed desire ; and there- 
fore an object of the greatest beauty and 
admiration to his sight. 

To the gift and endowments of life in 
himself, there immediately succeeds the fiat 
of the Almighty Creator for the perpetuating 
and multiplying this gift, by the faculty of 



72 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

procreation bestowed upon Adam, " Increase, 
and multiply, and replenish the earth." And 
for the sustenance and enjoyment of such 
an increase, was added thereto this accom- 
panying blessing, " Have dominion over it, 
and subdue it," &c. 

To the gift of the animal, w r as added the 
endowment of the rational faculty, for the 
true perception and just estimation of all 
those things which serve for the preservation 
and enjoyment of life, as evidently set forth 
in that description of Adam being called 
upon to give names to all the several creatures, 
according to their respective qualities. 

The life spiritual is evinced in that inter- 
course and communion which he is signified 
to have held with his Maker and Preserver, 
before he fled from his presence with shame 
and fear — unhappy substitutes for those 
previous sentiments of pleasure and delight 
which he must have entertained in his primi- 
tive state of pure and confidential worship! 

The life immortal was at least indicated 
to him in the converse of that fearful denun- 
ciation, " In the day in which thou eat est 
thereof thou shalt surely die." 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 73 

Thus, at the first creation of man, the 
direction was, " This do, and thou shalt 
live ;" live in happiness, live eternally. 

The pleasures of sense were placed before 
him, the joys of the spirit were equally given ; 
he was consequently happy in body and soul ; 
he both possessed and enjoyed " all things 
pertaining to life and godliness." 

Under the Patriarchal Dispensation, the 
ostensible promise was confined to a posses- 
sion on earth, both for the person himself, 
and for his posterity after him, with the 
Divine favour and protection to accompany 
them whithersoever they went. 

But spiritual blessings and a life to come, 
were included and understood in these obscure 
predictions. " Lift up thine eyes," said God 
to Abraham, " and see ! all this land will I 
give to thee, and to thy seed after thee. I 
will be thy shield, and thy exceeding great 
reward. In thee shall all the families of the 
earth be blessed." Only " walk before me, 
and be thou perfect." Here we behold the 
promise, and here the condition upon which 
it was made ; and by and by we read of the 
effect which that promise produced. Abra- 



74 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

ham believed God, and it was accounted unto 
him for righteousness ; and he became heir 
of the righteousness which is by faith" 
Where we see that faith was the faculty to 
which the promise was proposed, and by 
which that promise was embraced. 

Adam had suffered the instincts of the 
sensual appetites to overpower alike his faith 
and reason ; and thereby incurred both for- 
feiture and death, with the incidental evils 
of pain and grief. 

On the contrary, Abraham's faith enlight- 
ened and supported his reason, and thereby 
enabled him to triumph over the strongest 
and liveliest impressions of nature — the pa- 
rent's affection for his child, and his early 
attachment to his friends and home, in that 
he left his family and kindred, "not know- 
ing whither he went ;" and offered up Isaac 
his only and beloved son, at the instant of 
God's command, " whereby he pleased and 
became the friend of God ;" secured to his 
children the enjoyment of the promised land, 
and for himself the possession of the kingdom 
of heaven. 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 75 

Under the Law we find the same promise 
of life, and of all those blessings which render 
this natural life pleasant and delightful to 
mankind, proposed as the chief, if not the 
sole reward of piety and obedience towards 
God; and, on the contrary, death, and all 
those things which are most grievous and 
painful to man denounced against those who 
should prove rebellious and impious towards 
their Maker. 

Under the Gospel Dispensation we find that 
life, and happiness, and joy, are the main 
and staple promises of God to man ; and that 
Faith, or the love of God (for as comprehen- 
sive terms they are used promiscuously), 
is the condition upon which the promise is 
based, the active human cause to which the 
promise is attached ; but with this distinction, 
that in the New Testament the joys and delight 
which are promised even in this life, are 
chiefly spiritual : yet not without a sufficiency 
of outward things, together with contentment 
of mind. 

But it is chiefly the life and happiness of 
the world to come which are placed before 



76 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

the eye of a Christian's faith, and rendered 
the desirable and influential objects of a 
Christian's love. 

And accordingly whilst we find few or no 
descriptions of an outward state of present 
blessedness in the scriptures of the New 
Testament, we have more than one figurative 
and glowing description of the visible happi- 
ness and sensitive enjoyment of Christ's future 
kingdom of glory depicted therein. 

I say figurative ; for all those descriptions 
are taken from present and sensible things, 
from those which are most eagerly coveted, 
and earnestly sought after by men in this 
present world, as the means of affording them 
pleasure and delight. 

What the reality may be, no tongue can 
tell, no mind conceive. But we may be 
assured that it is of a higher and purer kind 
than any thing which a Heathen Elysium, a 
Turkish Paradise, or a Negro's Heaven are 
fabled to contain. 

But is a very remarkable fact, and in 
every respect both pertinent and favourable 
to my theory, that all those figurative de- 



; 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 77 

scriptions which are given of the joys and 
delights of heaven, are strikingly expressive 
of the several qualities of activity or motion, 
light and warmth, brilliancy and verdure, 
and of the " concord of sweet sounds," which 
I have all along instanced as the properties, 
indications, or promoters of prosperous life ; 
and, what is more, that the absolute power 
of vivifying and healing others, or of vital 
energy in themselves, are attributed to the 
greater part, if not to all of those several 
qualities. 

Thus ' with respect to activity and motion, 
the heavenly host are described as surrounding 
the throne of God in one perpetual and 
incessant course of lively ministrations ; and 
this must necessarily be where there is 
neither night nor sleep; neither fatigue of 
body, nor weariness of mind to require that 
refreshment of labour, that season of repose. 

Of Light there is said to be an essential 
and spiritual refulgence, continually emitted 
from " the glory of the Lord," and the 
presence of " the Lamb," throughout the 
immensity and eternity of those blest abodes. 



78 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

A light " clear as crystal," warm as " the 
jasper." The city itself is clothed with a 
similar brilliancy and glow of glassen purity 
and golden colour ; and is decked with every 
variety of the most splendid gems and ore. 

There is also a pure river of " water of 
life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the 
throne of God and the Lamb," with nothing 
to interrupt its course, or to soil its stream. 

" On either side of the river was the tree 
of life;" that — unlike the single produce of 
the one in Eden, which would have given an 
immortality of sin and misery to the human 
race, — bears twelve manner of wholesome 
fruits; and as there is neither spring, nor 
fall, nor summer, nor winter there, she yields 
her fruits every month in the congenial and 
perennial season of that unvarying clime ; 
whilst " the leaves of the tree," which can 
neither wither nor decay, " are for the healing 
of the nations." 

And thus, negatively, death cannot, because 
sin cannot, enter there ; no pain, because no 
hurt, can there be felt; no sorrow, because 
no loss ; no grief, because no evil, can dwell 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 79 

therein. But, positively, there is fulness of 
joy and pleasure at God's right hand for 
evermore. 

Of that joy and pleasure all alike partake 
to the utmost of their several capacities, 
without detriment, without envy, without 
disparagement, to each other : for there is 
a perfect communion of spirits, as there is a 
community of bliss therein; and the only 
contest there, is that of love, and in serving 
and celebrating Him from whom their perfect 
and eternal happiness proceeds. 

Therefore it follows that they who truly 
believe and duly exercise their thoughts 
upon the objects of Divine Revelation, have 
so much greater pleasure and delight in the 
apprehension and contemplation of them, 
than they have in those of a material and 
rational kind only, as the former surpass the 
latter in duration, power, and virtue. 

And secondarily, they will esteem and 
admire all such spiritual qualities as reach or 
tend to those blest abodes and objects above, 
in so much greater a degree than they do 
those of a merely physical or intellectual 



80 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

kind, as they do the heavenly objects them- 
selves above those of an earthly and perishing 
nature. 

Thus, keeping all things present and future, 
animal and rational, bodily and spiritual, 
earthly and heavenly, transient and perma- 
nent, fading and unfading, corruptible and 
incorruptible, mortal and immortal, defective 
and entire, in due degree and order; they 
allow to each their proper weight and mea- 
sure, derive from each their proper virtue 
and influence, and so temper and regulate 
their desires and affections, their pursuits 
and employments, their lives and actions, as 
to answer the ends of the great Creator, 
Ruler, and Preserver of this material world, 
the giver of all good things, the author of 
all wisdom ; and, above all, <bf that gracious 
Redeemer who has revealed to our eyes, 
opened to our feet, purchased for our ad- 
mission, prepared for our reception, and 
invited us to the everlasting possession and 
enjoyment of, the kingdom of heaven. 

Whilst they do not fail to acknowledge 
and admire the physical gifts and material 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 81 

workmanship of the Maker and Benefactor 
of the world ; to use them with moderation 
and thanksgiving ; to enter also with pleasure 
and delight into the various paths of human 
learning, and to relish the fruits of art and 
science; their principal study and chief 
delight consist in exploring the more won- 
derful instances of Almighty wisdom in the 
greater work of human redemption ; and in 
meditating upon the more admirable proofs 
of his love and goodness in the means which 
he has ordained for the accomplishment of 
that stupendous work; the blessings with 
which he has crowned and consummated this 
benevolent dispensation ; and the dispositions 
and qualifications which render us meet to 
be admitted, and to participate in the enjoy- 
ments of his glorious kingdom. 

Hence it is that they perceive a greater 
charm in the deportment of a meek and 
lowly spirit, than they do in a high and 
haughty bearing; that patient suffering in 
affliction appears more lovely in their view 
than an uninterrupted state of outward pros- 
perity; that a contented moderation in the 



82 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT 

use of this world has more beauty in their 
eyes than the unrestrained enjoyment of the 
greatest abundance ; that the deprecation 
of St. Stephen on behalf of his murderers 
is more admired by them, than the suggestions 
of the sons of Zebedee respecting those who 
had repudiated their master's commission; 
that the condition of Lazarus seems infinitely 
preferable to that of Dives; and that the 
habitual abstinence of St. Paul is far more 
attractive in their sight than the intemperate 
indulgence of Portius Festus. 

Nay, more, that the most cruel tortures 
and violent deaths of the righteous are far 
more precious in their estimation, than the 
easiest dissolution, or even the most pros- 
perous continuance of life, i^ the persons of 
the wicked; that palor and sickness are 
sometimes even more lovely than the rosiest 
hue of health; and the extreme of pining 
weakness to that of youthful strength; that 
the stake, the block, and the cross, are 
embraced with greater pleasure than the 
wealthiest and most honourable estate which 
this world has to offer in exchange; and 



IN THE HUMAN MIND. 83 

finally, that the gate and valley of death 
present a more welcome prospect, than a life 
all redolent of physical health and worldly 
joy alone. 

And further still— not only are objects 
more beautiful, scenes more attractive, pos- 
sessions more valuable, acquisitions more 
desirable, enjoyments more perfect, attain- 
ments more honourable, dignities more ven- 
erable, gratifications more delightful, beings 
more admirable and more adorable, beheld 
in that kingdom; so as fully to satisfy all 
the instinctive longings of our nature, and 
all the excited expectations of our minds ; 
at present in degree, plenarily hereafter ; 
but by reason of these we quench or mitigate., 
we soothe or allay, we soften and sweeten, 
and, in a thousand respects and degrees, we 
modify all our present views, passions, and 
affections; the greater absorbing the less, 
the stronger subduing the weaker, the more 
impressive affecting the more susceptible ; 
till, as we raise the earthly to partake of the 
heavenly, so do we bring down the heavenly 
to temper the earthly, through the grace and 



84 PLEASURE AND DELIGHT. 

Spirit of Him, who subjects all things in 
heaven and earth, to his will and power. 

To Him, the Supremely Wise, and Great, 
and Good; the Creator, Ruler, and Pre- 
server of this material world, and visible 
scene of things ; and the Redeemer, and 
Furnisher, and Sanctifier of the unseen 
world of souls, be ascribed all love and 
gratitude, dominion, praise, and glory, now 
and for ever ! 






FINIS. 



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